toffee

Chocolate Chip and Toffee Pudding Cookies

In high school and college I was a lifeguard at a community pool during the summers.  A couple of the other girls and I baked treats and brought them up to share with everyone a couple times a week.  One of the cashiers brought chocolate chip pudding cookies a few times and I fell in love with them.  She shared the recipe with me, but since this was more than 10 years ago and it was written on a piece of notebook paper I have lost it.  But thanks to Pinterest I found another recipe for pudding cookies that seems close to the recipe I got from Ashley!  What would we do without the internet?!

puddingcookies2

These are thick, chewy and soft chocolate chip cookies, the kind I prefer.  It’s a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but contains a secret ingredient,  a small package of vanilla pudding mix!  This makes them softer than typical cookies and quite addictive.  I added in some toffee pieces along with the chocolate chips.  The options are endless when it comes to mix-ins though.  You could add any kind of chocolate chip, nuts, caramel bits, crushed up pretzels, etc.

puddingcookies3

These are my favorite chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips from Guittard.  They’re bigger than the standard chip, have terrific milk chocolate flavor and melt terrifically in these cookies.  And in your mouth.  I may or may not eat them by the handful straight from the bag on occasion….or daily.

puddingcookies4

 Chocolate Chips and Toffee Pudding Cookies

From Life in the Lofthouse

Makes 24-30 cookies depending on their size

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks of butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 small box (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 bag (11 ounces) chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup toffee pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy.
  3. Add in the pudding mix and beat to combine.
  4. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions, followed by the vanilla.
  5. Beat in the flour, baking soda and salt until just combined.  Use a spatula to stir everything together from the bottom of the bowl.
  6. Stir in the chocolate chips and toffee with the spatula.
  7. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart, 6-8 cookies per sheet.
  8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are slightly browned.
  9. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Scoop dough onto the other cookie sheet while the one you just used cools off.
  10. Cookies will firm up as they cool, so if they appear under-baked wen you take them out of the oven, don’t worry.

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

 

chocchiptoffeecookie3

In general I prefer a thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.  The flat crunchy kind aren’t what I typically make or choose to enjoy with a glass of milk.   I’ve made my fair share of chocolate chip cookies and have some favorite recipes.  These, these and these are probably the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.  Going back in the blog archives makes me nostalgic and a little embarrassed of my food photos and writing.  Yeesh.  But, this is why I blog!  Documenting the good and the not so good, and seeing how my cooking, blogging and photography has changed.  Anyway, back to the cookies.

chocchiptoffeecookie4

I made these cookies for a friend who recently moved into a new house.  I kept a few for myself.  They are thin, but still chewy, which I realize now is what I really crave in a cookie.  And they are buttery and sweet and delicious.  The small amount of toffee pieces adds something special to these.  The original recipe, from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, calls for mini chocolate chips.  I used regular sized chips and think that it’s really a personal preference.  With mini chips you’ll get chocolate in each bite.  With the big chips you’ll end up with some bites with no chips, but the bites with chips are super yummy.  I love big hunks of chocolate in a cookie.  I guess a solution for that could be to use more big chips…  Other than the chips and the addition of the toffee pieces, I didn’t do anything differently.  This is a terrifically simple recipe.  Enjoy!

chocchiptoffeecookie2

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Makes 24-36 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 11 tablespoons unsalted butter,  softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup toffee pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugars until light in color, then beat in egg and and vanilla.
  4. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
  5. Mix in chocolate chips and toffee pieces.
  6. Use a cookie/ice cream scoop or tablespoon to drop scoops of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick liner.  Space them a couple inches apart since they’ll spread during baking.  8 cookies per sheet works well.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.  Let cool for a minute before moving to a rack.

Brown Butter Toffee Blondies

Martha Stewart offers a “Cookie of the Day” email that I have been getting for over a year now.  I have made a few of these cookies, but rarely do the cookies just scream out and beg for me to make them.  These brown butter blondies, however, were something I just couldn’t resist.

Browned butter is something special.  You can smell the nuttiness as it begins to brown in the pan, and the rich flavor that it gives to baked goods is tremendous.  This brown butter frosting is delicious, and worth a try on the pumpkin cookies, on vanilla cupcakes, and especially nice on pumpkin cake or bread.

These blondies are rich, and so your sweet tooth can be satisfied with a small square.  But, if you’re like me, you justify having a second small square since you only had one small piece to begin with!  Make sure to let these cool completely before cutting and removing from the pan.  They will seem a bit gooey in the center after 40 minutes of baking, but resist the urge to keep baking.  Just let them sit and be patient.  I replaced the walnuts called for in the original recipe with pecans, but everything else in the recipe remained as written.  Here is the link to Martha’s recipe.

Brown Butter Toffee Blondies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 cup toffee bits

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
  2. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter until it turns golden brown; remove from heat, and let cool. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine browned butter and both sugars; stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Attach bowl to mixer; add eggs. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat to combine. Add flour mixture, walnuts, and toffee bits. Mix until thoroughly combined, and pour into prepared pan.
  4. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes (do not overbake). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before turning out of pan onto a cutting board. Cut blondies into 3-inch squares. Blondies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Toffee Brownies

A few weeks ago I caught the end of Oprah while on the treadmill at the gym.  Her guests were the contestants of the 2010 Pillsbury Bake-Off, and at the end of the show they revealed the winner of the $1,000,000 grand prize.  This was the winning recipe, Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups.

These little treats look delicious!  And I know they must taste good as well.  How could they not?  The ingredients have no option but to create perfect sugary wonder!  Sugar cookie dough made into cups, dipped in chocolate and nuts, a spoonful of fruit jam in the bottom, topped with ice cream and fresh raspberries on top.  My problem with this is that it won $1,000,000 dollars.  They are somewhat creative I guess, but very little of this recipe is homemade or imaginative.

Were there no better recipes than this in the contest?  Seriously?  Who judges this contest?  A 10 year old who just LOVES ice cream sundaes?  Am I being harsh?

I got on the Pillsbury website and decided to go on a mission to look at other recipes that were contenders in the 2010 Bake Off. These brownies were among the finalists, and while they do use a brownie mix, there is more to these brownies than just a dressed up mix topped with ice cream.  On top of the brownie layer is spread a layer of sweet cream cheese and peanut butter goodness.  To finish things off, a layer of melted chocolate  is spread over the brownies and then sprinkled with toffee pieces.

Without having made the cookie cups, I can’t say for sure that these are better or more worthy of the prize, but they are very tasty.  Enjoy in small portions with a glass of milk because they are rich and quite chocolate-y.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Toffee Brownies

Courtesy of Pamela Shank

Ingredients

  • 1 box (19.5 oz) Brownie Mix
  • ½ cup Vegetable Oil
  • ¼ cup water
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
  • 1 can (14 oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
  • ½ cup Peanut Butter
  • 1 bag (8 oz) toffee bits
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 13×9-inch pan with cooking spray.

2. In medium bowl, stir brownie mix, oil, water and eggs 50 strokes with spoon until smooth. Spread batter in pan; set aside.

3. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add milk and peanut butter; beat until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the toffee bits. Spoon mixture over batter; spread evenly.

4. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set and edges are light golden brown. Cool on cooling rack 30 minutes. Refrigerate 40 minutes.

5. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and cream uncovered on High 40 to 60 seconds or until chips are melted; stir until smooth. Spread over cheesecake layer. Sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Cool completely, about 1 hour. For brownies, cut into 6 rows by 6 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Gooey Toffee Butter Cake

Paula Deen.  What a woman.  I actually do kind of like her!  Yes, she can overdo it a bit when it comes to butter, bacon and cream, but I find her endearing.  I’d like her to be in my family so that I could see her a few times a year at family functions.  She’d be my Great Aunt Paula who always gives me super tight, full-frontal hugs.  She seems like she makes everyone around her happy…or at least full of incredibly rich comfort food, which pretty much equates to happiness, right?  Maybe you think I’m wrong, and that’s OK.  Regardless of what you think about Paula Deen though, I think we can all agree that this sounds delicious.  How can something sweet and gooey, with ingredients like toffee pieces, butter and cream cheese be bad?

This cake is by no means a classy or visually impressive dessert.  It’s not something that you would serve at a fancy dinner party, but it would be a crowd pleaser at a pot-luck or at a small, casual family dinner.

When you search “gooey butter cake” on Google, your first results will most likely be Paula Deen recipes.  However, she is not the inventor of the cake.  It originated in St. Louis in the 1940s and is typically not a dessert cake, but a coffee cake.  This Paula Deen version is too rich and sweet to be served as a coffee cake, in my opinion.  I found a recipe today for one made from scratch that I plan to try soon.  The base is made with a yeast dough that rises around the edges of the butter, cream cheese and sugar filling.

The cake mix makes this recipe very quick.  However, the cake mix with the combination of butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and toffee make this cake very rich and incredibly sweet.  Some people may not like it (like Ben) for this very reason.  I am OK with crazy sweet desserts, so I liked this cake.  It should however be served in small pieces so that no one goes into a sugar coma.  Here is a link to the recipe.

Gooey Toffee Butter Cake

(Courtesy of Paula Deen, Foodtv.com)

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

  • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup almond toffee bits or chocolate toffee bits
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 by 9 by-2-inch baking pan.
  2. For the cake: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside.
  3. For the filling: Still using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners’ sugar and beat well. Reduce the speed and slowly pour in butter. Mix well. Fold in toffee bits.
  4. Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Don’t be afraid to make a judgment call on the cooking time, because oven temperatures can vary. You want the center to be a little gooey, so don’t bake it past that point!
  5. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares. Just remember that these wonderful cakes are very, very rich, and a little will go a long way.

Lazy Sunday: Coconut, Oatmeal, Toffee Chocolate No Bake Cookies

These little “cookies” are pretty tasty and incredibly easy to make.  Since these cookies are ball shaped they reminded me more of a truffle and less of a cookie.  From start to finish, including the 30 minutes chilling time, these were ready in less than an hour.  Pretty close to instant gratification.  I used a 2 1/2 quart saucepan and it was big enough to do all the melting and mixing so clean up was a breeze.  Well, we are dealing with melted marshmallow, butter and chocolate so clean up isn’t really a “breeze” but it’s just one sticky pan, not half a dozen, like some recipes require.  So it isn’t too bad.  Great for a lazy day when I want to do a little cleaning as possible.

The cookies on the left were just scooped, the center cookies were scooped, then rolled between my palms, and the far right were rolled in my palms then in coconut.

nobakes

The combination of flavors and textures is terrific.  The sweetener in these candies/cookies is marshmallow instead of the usual white sugar typical in no-bake cookies like this.  The oats make the cookies hearty, the coconut gives them a nice chew, and the toffee pieces add a nice crunch.  So, if you need a sweet fix and you’re not in the mood to bake a batch of cookies, try these.

Coconut, Oatmeal, Toffee Chocolate No Bake Cookies

  • 6 ounces chopped milk or semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 16 large marshmallows
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup flaked coconut
  • 1/2 cup toffee pieces
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  1. Melt butter, chocolate and marshmallows over low heat in a saucepan (or you can use a double boiler).  Stir until mixture is smooth, 5-10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.
  2. Mix in in peanut butter, vanilla.  Stir in coconut, oats and toffee pieces until well combined.
  3. Scoop by tablespoons onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Optional: You can roll the mixture into smooth balls and then roll the balls in coconut or toffee pieces for a fancier looking cookie.
  4. Chill the cookies for 30 minutes, then serve.